Our work investigates how material and industrial cultures shape the world and challenges the regulations, supply chains and processes that to a large extent prescribe how the buildings we inhabit are made, function and feel. We think this can change and needs to change at speed. Modern methods of construction have the capacity to transform the way in which things are built and offer the space to generate new forms of culture in the construction industry.
Through our work we have demonstrated that low carbon local materials can be more affordable and durable than globally-sourced, petrochemical-derivative materials, and are capable of comfortably meeting and outperforming industry standards. The material resources on which our futures are dependent - softwood timber, stone, clay, lime, plant fibres and shiv - can be grown and sourced across the UK and their production is low intensity. As reducing embodied carbon in the construction industry becomes necessary, and as oil prices rise and we look towards a post Brexit economy the UK will need to rebuild its manufacturing economy and crucially make commitments to a low carbon approach.
In the UK current architectural languages predominantly belong to a lineage that is born from cis white male cultures. The fact that it is so hard for us to think and design beyond these languages is in part due to the fact that they are now embedded in the vocabulary of components, products, and regulations that frame architectural possibility. Our work explores the potential for a new architectural language to emerge through and from direct contact with materials and the processes of making and a creative interpretation of the regulations.
Construction and maintenance presently accounts for over 40% of total UK carbon emissions. 11% of the industry’s carbon emissions are derived from the manufacture of materials. Current housing models depend on large amounts of high-energy materials, mass-manufactured overseas, with short lifespans. If we are to halt the progress of ecological breakdown we need to radically rethink the logic of current construction methods, the materials we use and our approach to growth. In doing so it is likely that we will need to both recover some of our forgotten technologies and develop entirely new forms of architectural language.
Clients
Argent
Arup
The Architectural Association
The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Bauhaus Earth
Building Centre
Cecence
Central Saint Martins, UAL
Charleston House
The Design Museum
Evolving Forests
Fishtank
Grizedale Arts
Forestry England
HG Matthews
Hong Kong Design Institute
Human Nature
London Metropolitan University
The London School of Architecture
Naked House
Newham London Borough Council
SOM Foundation
York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership
Woods into Management Fund
Work Ltd
Directors
● Paloma Gormley
● Summer Islam
● George Massoud
Current Team
● Caitlin McNamara
● Christopher Kokarev
● Daria Moatazed-Keivani
● Margit Kraft
● Riyam Salim
● Rory Corr
● Sally Moussawi
● Shreya Sarin
● Will Bradley
Collaborators
● Becky Little
● Esme Walker
● Ffion Blench
● Henry Stringer
● Jeffrey Hart
● Jez Ralph
● Will Stanwix
Past Team
● Alastair Howard
● Alessandra de Mitri
● Amaya Hernandez
● Aya Mousa
● Caroline Esclapez
● Ceri Hedderwick Turner
● Christopher Gabe
● Connie Beauchamp
● Cosmin Chirpac
● Eloise Coleman
● Joy Mulandi
● Ker Jia Goh
● Louise Underhill
● Marwa El Mubark
● Sam Little
● Sodueari Graham-Douglas
● Tom Hart
● William Hayter
● Xiao Fang
Selected Press
05.2023
The Big Picture: A Conversation with Material Cultures
Will Higginbotham, Well Life, Lived Well
05.2023
The Building Materials of the Future Might Be Growing in Your Backyard
Marianna Janowicz, Untapped Journal
02.2023
Green Labour: Material Reform and The Value of a Whale
George Kafka, The Architectural Review
01.2023
Homegrown show makes compelling case for post-carbon construction
Pamela Buxton, The RIBA Journal
01.2023
London architecture exhibitions 2023: a guide to the best shows this month
Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper
01.2023
Material Reform: Building for a Post-Carbon Future
Vanessa Norwood, The London Society
12.2022
Eleanor Young, Stylepark
12.2022
5 Regenerative Design Principles by Material Cultures
Kendra Jackson, Azure Magazine
12.2022
In Material Reform, Material Cultures Rethinks the Cultures, Systems, and Infrastructures of How We Make Architecture, The Architect’s Newspaper
11.2022
Design, Climate Action: Regenerative Exhibition Design
Sophie Tolhurst, Design Week
11.2022
This is What Post-Carbon Design Looks Like Now
David Thorpe, The Fifth Estate
07.2022
The Future is Hempcrete
Malaika Byng, Metropolis
04.2022
Best Practise
Eleanor Young, The RIBA Journal
07.2021
A New Sustainability Paradigm
Michael Pawlyn, Domus
06.2021
Make low-tech our mantra and design clean and simple
Edmund Fowles, The RIBA Journal
06.2021
In Practice: Material Cultures on decarbonising construction
The Architecture Review
05.2021
The tyranny of concrete and its costly carbon footprint
Layli Foroudi, The Financial Times
Selected Books
Material Reform
Material Cultures with Amica Dall
2022, Mack Books
Build: From High to Low Tech
Hinterland Architecture Studio
2022, Build Porto
Manual of Biogenic House Selections
Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis
2022, ORO Editions
Radical Architecture of the Future,
Beatrice Galilee
2020, Phaidon
Houses That Can Save the World
Courtenay Smith, Sean Topham
2022, Thames and Hudson
Material Cultures Policies
Our work investigates how material and industrial cultures shape the world and challenges the regulations, supply chains and processes that to a large extent prescribe how the buildings we inhabit are made, function and feel. We think this can change and needs to change at speed. Modern methods of construction have the capacity to transform the way in which things are built and offer the space to generate new forms of culture in the construction industry.
Through our work we have demonstrated that low carbon local materials can be more affordable and durable than globally-sourced, petrochemical-derivative materials, and are capable of comfortably meeting and outperforming industry standards. The material resources on which our futures are dependent - softwood timber, stone, clay, lime, plant fibres and shiv - can be grown and sourced across the UK and their production is low intensity. As reducing embodied carbon in the construction industry becomes necessary, and as oil prices rise and we look towards a post Brexit economy the UK will need to rebuild its manufacturing economy and crucially make commitments to a low carbon approach.
In the UK current architectural languages predominantly belong to a lineage that is born from cis white male cultures. The fact that it is so hard for us to think and design beyond these languages is in part due to the fact that they are now embedded in the vocabulary of components, products, and regulations that frame architectural possibility. Our work explores the potential for a new architectural language to emerge through and from direct contact with materials and the processes of making and a creative interpretation of the regulations.
Construction and maintenance presently accounts for over 40% of total UK carbon emissions. 11% of the industry’s carbon emissions are derived from the manufacture of materials. Current housing models depend on large amounts of high-energy materials, mass-manufactured overseas, with short lifespans. If we are to halt the progress of ecological breakdown we need to radically rethink the logic of current construction methods, the materials we use and our approach to growth. In doing so it is likely that we will need to both recover some of our forgotten technologies and develop entirely new forms of architectural language.
Unit 15, Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN
E info@materialcultures.org
T 02072543376
Unit 15, Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN
E info@materialcultures.org